Joe Heck

Joseph John Heck (born October 30, 1961) is an American physician and politician who served as the United States representative for Nevada's 3rd congressional district from 2011 to 2017.

Heck was ranked as the 74th most bipartisan member of the U.S. House of Representatives during the 114th United States Congress (and the most bipartisan member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Nevada) in the Bipartisan Index created by The Lugar Center and the McCourt School of Public Policy that ranks members of the United States Congress by their degree of bipartisanship (by measuring the frequency each member's bills attract co-sponsors from the opposite party and each member's co-sponsorship of bills by members of the opposite party).

Heck was born in Jamaica, Queens, a neighborhood of New York City, and was raised in Pennsylvania, where he graduated from Wallenpaupack Area High School in 1979.

He graduated from the Pennsylvania State University in 1984 with a degree in health education.

He is a member of the Beta Theta Pi fraternity.

He received his Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine in 1988 from the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine and obtained a residency in emergency medicine in 1992 at the Albert Einstein Medical Center.

Heck served in the United States Army Reserve since 1991 and was promoted to brigadier general in 2014.

He has commanded a Medical Readiness Support Group overseeing more than 2,000 soldiers in six western states, and continues to serve in this capacity while in Congress.

He has served in Operation Joint Endeavor, Operation Noble Eagle, and Operation Iraqi Freedom.

In 1992, he moved to Clark County, Nevada.

From 1998 to 2003, Heck served as the medical director of the Casualty Care Research Center of the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Maryland, where he provided medical support for several federal law enforcement agencies and oversight for the medical response to acts of terrorism.

Heck started his medical career as a volunteer firefighter and ambulance attendant in rural Pennsylvania.

He volunteered as a medical team manager with the Nevada Urban Search & Rescue Team – Task Force 1 and as a member of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Search & Rescue team.

He served as a tactical physician with the LVMPD SWAT team.

Heck served as a member of the Nevada State Homeland Security Commission Sub-committee on Health, the American Osteopathic Association's Task Force on Bioterrorism, and as the medical director for the Nevada Hospital Association's Hospital Preparedness program.

He also served as the medical director for the Southern Nevada Health District's Office of Public Health Preparedness.

Heck served one four-year term in the Nevada Senate, representing Clark County's 5th district.

Heck is a United States Army major general and a board-certified physician who previously served as a Nevada state senator from 2004 to 2008.

Heck was first elected to the Nevada Senate to represent Clark County's 5th district in 2004, after defeating Senator Ann O'Connell in the Republican primary.

He earned a Master of Strategic Studies degree from the U.S. Army War College in 2006.

His last deployment was in January 2008 when he commanded an emergency room in a combat hospital outside Baghdad.

Heck narrowly lost re-election in 2008 to Democrat Shirley Breeden by a margin of 47% to 46% and a plurality of 765 votes.

Libertarian T. Rex Hagan received 4,754 votes (8%).

He served on the Natural Resources, Human Resources and Education, the Commerce and Labor Committees.

He was also the vice-chair of the Transportation and Homeland Security Committee.

Although Heck had earlier announced he would challenge incumbent Republican Jim Gibbons for governor, he decided against it in favor of a run for Nevada's 3rd congressional district.

He defeated incumbent Democratic U.S. Congresswoman Dina Titus, 48%–47%, a difference of 1,748 votes.

Titus only held the position for one term after she defeated incumbent Republican Jon C. Porter in 2008.

After redistricting, Heck decided to run in the newly redrawn 3rd district, which Obama won in 2008 with 54% of the vote.

On November 6, he defeated Speaker of the Nevada Assembly John Oceguera 50%–43%.

Heck won reelection easily, beating Democrat Erin Bilbray by a margin of 61 percent to 36 percent.

In 2010, he signed the Americans for Prosperity's No Climate Tax pledge.

He supports an "all of the above" energy policy which includes natural gas, domestic oil production, and alternative energy sources such as wind, solar, hydropower, geothermal and nuclear.

Heck was the president, owner, and medical director of Specialized Medical Operations until 2011.

The company provided medical training, consulting, and operational support to law enforcement agencies, EMS, and military special operations.

Heck has lectured and is published on special operations medical support, the medical response to acts of terrorism, and emergency preparedness and response.

Heck was one of three freshmen named to the House Republican Steering Committee in the 112th Congress.

He was re-elected to the Republican Steering Committee in both 2012 and 2014.

He ran for the United States Senate in 2016, losing to Catherine Cortez Masto.

He was promoted to the rank of major general in a ceremony at Fort Douglas, Utah, November 7, 2020.